


Road to Hell

by VenezuelanWriter



Category: Daredevil (TV), Iron Fist (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Danny-centric, Gen, Nightmares, Post-Episode: s01e08 The Defenders, Presumed Dead Character, The Defenders (Marvel TV) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 01:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11887350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenezuelanWriter/pseuds/VenezuelanWriter
Summary: Danny has nightmares. They're about Matt.





	Road to Hell

**Author's Note:**

> Set a few months after The Defender’s events.
> 
> This is for DannyLovesMatt. Hope you enjoy this <3 
> 
> BTW for those like me who haven’t read the comics yet: After Matt “dies”, Danny starts going out in Daredevil’s suit (I knooow right?!).

Before him, Danny contemplates a white hallway. It’s stretch; he knows he couldn’t even spread his arms without having his elbows flexed.

He looks up and all he can see is more white. Where there should be a roof or the sky, there’s just a big white blur.

Danny feels trapped and he definitely doesn’t like that feeling.

He looks down and examines what he’s wearing: A pair of sweats and his sleeping t-shirt. How did he get there in the middle of the night? He can’t remember, but he knows for sure that he needs to get himself out of that mysterious place as soon as possible.

Danny turns around and finds a wall. He tries to summon the fist—maybe he could break his way out of there. But he can’t focus his chi and his hand doesn’t glow nor becomes powerful.

With frustration, he starts walking towards the end of the 30-feet-long hallway, which apparently is the only thing he can do right now. He reaches the end and meets with another hall to his right.

He keeps walking, slowly and with uncertainty. Although this hallway is shorter, at its bottom there are on each side stretcher halls. Following nothing but his gut, Danny decides to turn left this time.

In every corner, there are just more halls and more intersections. The narrowness of the corridors varies from one hallway to another and he feels like he’s running out of oxygen even when he thinks he’s the only one in there.

Desperation is almost hitting him when, in the distance, an echo bounces on the walls.

Danny starts moving depending on where he thinks the sound is coming from. It seems like he does a good job because the echo turns from something distorted into an intelligible word.

“Danny.”

Is that Matt’s voice?

“Hey, are you trapped in here too?” Danny screams.

“Danny,” Matt’s voice monotonously repeats.

“Are you ok?” Danny asks, still raising his voice. Matt hadn’t sounded well. He’d sounded hurt, out of breath, tired.

“Find me,” Matt says, almost like a whisper.

Danny takes a deep breath. If that just sounded like a whisper, then Matt must be near him, right? He shouldn’t be that hard to find.

Danny starts running from one side of the mortifyingly pale halls to the other without succeeding at finding Matt quickly. He feels like he’s going crazy (and that’s probably an understatement).

Since Matt’s voice was the only compass Danny has, he tries making him talk again:

“Matt, where are you?” he asks loudly.

But Matt doesn’t respond.

Danny’s almost given up when he sees a small crimson drop of _something_ spotting the white floor. He bends down and swipes the stain clean with his index finger. He smells it and oh, surprise, it’s fresh blood.

The single drop becomes a trail until the bottom of that hallway. The stains are bigger the more Danny walks and after turning around five corners, he finally finds Matt.

Danny gawks in horror. Matt’s wearing his Daredevil suit and is lying against a white cylindrical column that appears to be the center of the structure they are trapped in. A gross puddle of blood surrounds him and there’s still some dripping out of his mouth too.

“Matt, dear God, what happened to you?” Danny asks, rushing to kneel beside him.

“You’ve done this to me,” Matt says.

“What?”

Danny takes him the mask off. Matt’s eyes are staring into space, but that’s actually a little hard to tell since how damaged his forehead and temples are.

“You don’t deserve my suit. You don’t deserve my name. So don’t take it.”

Tears Danny can’t control roll down his cheeks at Matt’s words.

“W-why are you telling me this?” Danny asks, sobbing. His hands get on Matt’s chest over his suit, trying to find whatever wound that has him bleeding out. “I thought you wanted me to protect your city.”

“As Iron Fist. You’re a hero with a name of your own.”

Danny wipes the tears off his face with the heels of his hands, getting blood on his cheeks. He stands up and pulls his hair back.

“Oh my God, I have to get out of here now,” he whispers, covering his mouth right after.

“You can’t,” Matt says.

The walls start crumbling down and the floor shakes beneath Danny’s feet. He curls himself up on the floor and waits patiently for his death to arrive. At least it would be quick, he thinks.

Danny startles awake, panting. He runs his hand over his face, removing the fine layer of sweat that covered it. He sighs and sits on his bed.

“It was just a bad dream,” he tells himself as his heart rate slows down.

He misses the nights when dreaming of Matt was equal to waking up happy. He misses the brief time where Danny had the chance to fight along with him and learn from his experience. He misses dreaming of having lunch with Matt as if they ever were actual friends, before Matt sacrificed himself.

Now? Now the recurring maze nightmare is getting him sick.

Sometimes the place fell down when he’d just heard Matt’s calls. Sometimes he would find Matt already dead and he’d feel guilty for not getting there before. Hell, sometimes everything was so vivid he could swear the blood smell remained in his nose even after he woke up.

And although Danny’s never been religious, he’s nowadays used to praying before going back to sleep. It relaxes him and helps him remember the good kind of man that Matt was.

Danny crosses himself out loud and sighs. His eyes are closed and his fingers are intertwined over his chest.

“Matt, I don’t know if I can talk to you through prayers,” he says quietly. “I think you may be in heaven, but I don’t know how this works. I just hope that wherever you are, you’re not angry at me. I’m doing this because you inspired me to do it and because New York feels like a home to me now. I have good intentions. Please don’t be mad at me."

Danny untangles his fingers and starts making the signal of the cross.

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

He lays on his side and soon enough he peacefully returns to sleep.

 

And what Danny doesn’t know is that, from the building’s rooftop, Matt’s beating heart warmed up at his sweet and humble words.


End file.
